After warning Kuugetsu not to overuse her Mangekyō abilities and assuring her he had a way to prevent blindness, Hoshiyomi left her ward for the time being. He planned to arrange for Kuugetsu to stay close to Tsunade — that would be the safest place for her, and there would be no real need to use her Mangekyō there.
Leaving Kuugetsu's room, Hoshiyomi returned to the Hokage office. After Tsunade briefed him on the situation, she raised a new problem.
"By the way," she said, "what should we do about Kirigakure? I just received intelligence — Kirigakure didn't merely plan that ambush. They've also been sending teams to ambush our supply teams along the Land of Fire border.
Yesterday one of their teams actually stumbled onto one of our supply teams and intercepted a shipment. The supplies themselves are not the main issue — a more serious matter occurred: among the attacked supply teams was a member of the Hyūga main family.
He died during the ambush, and the autopsy and subsequent investigation concluded that one of his Byakugan was destroyed, and the other went missing.
The Hyūga are furious and are debating whether to come to the Hokage's office and demand war with Kirigakure.
If they do, should we placate the Hyūga or declare war on Kirigakure outright? Also — what should we do with those Seven Ninja swords?"
Hoshiyomi didn't hesitate. "We won't just sit there and get hit," he said. "If they dare to send people to invade Konoha like this, they should be ready to be struck back.
As for those seven swords — they brought them to us. Why return them? Keep them in Konoha. Consider it interest collected in advance. If theKirigakure can have a Seven Swordsmen, why can't Konoha have one?
Let the old man pick some promising students from the academy. Those swords have useful abilities; we'll put them to work and build our own Seven — we'll be no worse than Kirigakure."
Tsunade nodded approvingly; on this point the two of them were very much alike — neither willing to accept being shortchanged or back down.
But she frowned a moment later. "Still — our war with Iwa and Kumo is heating up. Wouldn't it be bad to rashly declare war on Kirigakure at this time?"
"Who said we need to launch a full-scale war? They can send people to ambush us, so why can't we do the same? That way, we can both avoid a formal declaration of war and pacify the Hyūga Clan's anger."
Tsunade was taken aback. "You mean we retaliate directly, also sending people to ambush Kirigakure? But our high-tier forces are tied up at the Iwa and Kumo fronts. We can't just pull them away."
Hoshiyomi proudly tapped his chest with his thumb. "Have you forgotten me? I can go to Kirigakure by myself. As for Iwa, if anything goes wrong, have the old man cover there for a while. Right now the other great villages are busy — Suna won't dare trouble us, and Iwa and Kumo are fighting each other.
If I strike Kirigakure and intimidate them, they're unlikely to make any other moves. Also, Kuugetsu's current strength can be considered Kage-level now; with you two holding the village, pulling the old man out temporarily won't be an issue."
Tsunade considered this and realized he had a point. After a moment she added:"Since we're going to ambush Kirigakure, why not take a few Hyūga clansmen with you? They have grievances, right? Then let them retrieve their own Byakugan. They can also help you scout and gather intelligence."
Hoshiyomi and Tsunade were in immediate agreement. Having decided to ambush Kirigakure, the two of them didn't dawdle and went directly to the Hyūga clan compound.
Within the Hyūga compound, feelings were running high over this incident. Upon hearing Hoshiyomi and Tsunade's intentions, the response was naturally enthusiastic.
However, the elderly Hyūga Clan Head still feared the possibility of losing more Byakugan eyes, so he didn't allow the two most eager brothers — Hiashi and Hizashi — to join the mission. Instead, he sent several highly skilled branch family members to assist Hoshiyomi in combat.
Hoshiyomi didn't mind in the slightest; to him, it didn't really matter who came along — they would just be there for support. The real fighting would, of course, be up to him.
After finalizing the arrangements with the Hyūga clan, that very night Hiruzen Sarutobi donned his battle gear and headed for the Land of Fire front lines to take Hoshiyomi's place. Hoshiyomi, meanwhile, set out with three elite Hyūga branch-family jōnin, heading straight toward Kirigakure.
What Hoshiyomi didn't know was that, just as he departed with his team, far away in Sunagakure, Rasa was making his own secret moves.
In the Kazekage's office, Rasa was reading a confidential letter, a strange smile spreading across his face.
Kirigakure's "little schemes" weren't limited to their invasion of Konoha — they had also been launching ambushes and sneak attacks on Sunagakure's forces, who were already being harassed by both Iwagakure and Kumogakure.
This had caused immense distress to Rasa, who was busy sending Pakura to fight Kirigakure and Iwagakure during the day, while secretly trying to establish contact with Kirigakure at night, seeking a chance for a ceasefire.
After a very long period of contact, he finally managed to get in touch with Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage.
After lengthy negotiations, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, was finally willing to stop attacking Sunagakure. Their condition for the ceasefire was very simple: hand over the "Hero of Sunagakure," Pakura.
This demand, this demand was simply... exactly what Rasa wanted!
If you asked Rasa who he hated the most right now, it was undoubtedly the one known as the "Hero of Sunagakure," the "Flower of Sunagakure," Pakura.
Because of her, his reputation as Kazekage had been steadily diminishing. Especially after he announced that he might resign after the Third Great Ninja War, rumors began to spread openly that Pakura should become the next Kazekage.
At that point, Rasa was desperate for her to die. And just as he was wondering how to get rid of her, Kirigakure had kindly delivered him the perfect opportunity on a silver platter.
Sending Pakura to fight against Kirigakure had been the right call after all!
Without a moment's hesitation, Rasa sent a reply confirming that in four days, Pakura would be dispatched to Kirigakure on a mission — precisely when their "exchange" would take place.
To avoid suspicion that he had deliberately arranged Pakura's death, Rasa even convened a high-level meeting — notably excluding Pakura.
His convincing display of reluctant helplessness won over Chiyo, Ebizō, and the other senior advisors of Sunagakure. Though they all knew it was unfair to Pakura, with Hoshiyomi now hostile toward them, they felt they had no choice but to sacrifice her for the sake of the village.
And so, the next morning, Pakura received her new mission: to head to Kirigakure and exchange classified information with a Sunagakure spy stationed there — the scheduled time of the handoff: four days later.
(Author's note: The conflict between Sunagakure and Kirigakure wasn't foreshadowed earlier — this part follows the plotline from the original story.)